Blue is the Warmest Color

It's that time of the year: time for top 10 lists, time to start gearing up for awards season, and picking the contenders and ensuring we shout their names in all caps from behind our laptops, and a time for critics to champion our favorite movies and performances -- which is why I think it's time to take a look back at my favorite female-centric (and gender politic-centric) films and female performances of 2013.

The scandal preceding 'Blue Is the Warmest Color' -- involving very public fights between director Abdellatif Kechiche and stars Lea Seydoux and Adele Exarchopolous -- almost seems worth it when viewing the end result: a beautiful, moving, highly emotional piece of drama featuring unquestionably exhausting work from its two female leads. It's a film that's the result of the relentless labors of its director and stars, and the kind of story that requires an emotional toll to be paid from those involved. At film's end, you sort of walk away just as exhausted as Seydoux and Exarchopolous must have been.